The preferred embodiment concerns a control system for an electrophotographic printing or copying system. The control system contains an operating unit for input and/or output of operating information of the printing or copying system.
Known electrophotographic printers or copiers contain an operating unit via which the execution of print jobs, the operating mode of the printer as well as parameters and setting values of the printer can be shown to an operating personnel with the aid of a graphical user interface, whereby the operating personnel implements operator control actions via inputs with the aid of the graphical user interface. The setting values in particular concern parameters of the printer or copier that an operating personnel must set to implement different print jobs. These parameters are, for example, parameters of carrier material to be printed and parameters of toner material used to generate print images. The operator control actions to be executed by an operating personnel also concern settings to produce the operational readiness and the establishment of the sequence as well as the start of print jobs that should be executed by the printer or copier.
Access to internal control variables of the printer or copier are not possible with the aid of the operating unit. For service and maintenance tasks as well as for diagnostic functions, given the output of false operating information the accesses to internal control variables of the printer or copier are, however, necessary (in particular for troubleshooting) in order to add the values of the internal control variables that serve as output values for generation of the output operating information. These values of the internal control variables are also designated as raw data from which display data are then generated. Display data are then generated with the help of the system. The operating information are then output with the aid of the display data.
A method and a system for printing of documents based on JAVA commands are known from the document WO 97/43720. Setting values for configuration of the printer can be set with the aid of user interfaces, whereby the printer can also be connected with the computer over a network, preferably over the Internet.
A computer system is known from the document EP 0 926 593 A12 in which the data exchange between a personal computer and a printer is in particular implemented via the use of elements present in the programming language JAVA.
An activation arrangement to control a plurality of printers operating in what is known as tandem operation is known from the document EP 0 239 845. For this, a belt-shaped recording medium is provided on the front side with one print image by the first printer and on the back side with one print image by the second printer.
From the document DE 198 36 745 A1 it is known that operating information of the printing or copying system can be input and/or output with the aid of an operating unit. At least two control units are connected with a data line for control of at least one part of the electrophotographic printing or copying system. Control data can be transferred between the control units with the aid of the data line.